Distracted By Something Shiny

March 1, 2020...Day 2: Day 2 started out perfect, even though it was super early in the morning, because I woke up sailing through the middle of the Caribbean with T standing next to my bed grinning like a lunatic. The kids ordered me room service, because that’s “fancy” and “what rich people do” - & it’s all inclusive on Disney cruises. Then T was insisting he needed to go to the pool *immediately*, but when he put on his swimsuit it didn’t fit, so we all went down to the store. I got water shoes because L explained to me all the things they are good for and I decided she made a good points. We also bought magnets for our room door, to decorate it. Also I called for a pool lift, but they said it can only go in the adult pool. I swore it was portable and could go to any pool - that was a selling point of Disney cruises for me. Needless to say I was very, very bummed. We went down to the family pool though and I lounged outside and I definitely got some nice sun. Plus there’s a movie screen by the pool, so I watched The Incredibles while I got sun.

( Under the cut for spaceage. )

Then we went to a game show, but you had to be able to do stuff in English so the kids could not play it, but we watched and it actually was pretty funny. It was called “So You Think You Know Your Family” and they pulled a parent and a kid from the audience, four sets, and have them compete against each other, kind of like The Newlywed Game. That ended at 11pm, we were party animals! T was still insisting that he wasn’t tired, but I think he was the first one of us to fall sleep, LOL. That was a huge day and that wasn’t even the biggest day we had on the cruise!

Why yes, I am going on another cruise! This time with Sis, Canadian Brother, Canadian Niece (age 10) & Canadian Nephew (age 8). It’s another Disney Star Wars Cruise - (the kids are both super into Star Wars) - only this time instead of the Virgin Islands, we sail west to Mexico, Grand Cayman, Jamaica & Bahamas. 7 days of sun, I can’t wait! Just 2 more days! Anyways, my hair... From FB, hence my begging if anyone knows where my hairstylist went, lol...

What do you guys think of the new hair?! I’m beach-ready! Vacation time! Tbh I was iffy at first on the hair. I had to work w a new girl, mine left JcPenney. (If any of the places you go have gotten a 30-something tattooed awesome lady named Lindsey on their roster in the past 9 months or so, lmk so I can check & see if that’s my girl, I need her back!)!!!



( Pics & ramblings under the cut. )

Vacation pics when I get back!

Once again I have to thank Canadian Nephew for the use of his lightsaber for this photo. I mean, he didn’t *know* I was using it - I had just bought him this as his souvenir from my cruise, but then I was getting photos done on the cruise in front of the Star Wars backdrop & I thought, “I need a lightsaber! I’m borrowing CN’s that I haven’t even given him yet.” And I ripped that packaging open & borrowed his lightsaber. When I told him later why it wasn’t in the package, he yelled, “Hey! What the Heck!” HaLol



As always, fellow Rebels, May the Fourth be with you.

Omg, I have a release date for my book! You guys!! Friday, October 26th. Just 11 days. I’m freaking out. I never thought this day would actually come. I started this project by writing a single chapter for my Grandma Ava for Christmas, 2015. Nearly three years ago. And now…just 11 days to go.

I simultaneously feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, as well as feeling like my chest is caving in on me. I have never really shared my writing with people in my ‘real life’, but so many of them are going to buy this book, it’s kind of nerve-wracking. Of the few that I have shared my work with, it has been a divide between very supportive and whatever the complete opposite of that is. So you can see why I’m slightly flipping at having more ‘real life’ people read my stuff. The thought of ‘outsiders’ finding it and reading it though is actually exciting!

Anyways, I have been so preoccupied this last year with editing, formatting, designing, setting up accounts, figuring how to upload a fixed layout, figuring what fixed layout even is - all of those things have consumed my last year and I’ve not written a thing. My word muscles are going to need some stretching. So I think, once the book is up and running, I will flex them with some short fics. The Nephew has requested a Nightcrawler fic from me and I have an idea for a Supergirl fic for his little sister – her first fanfic from me. Maybe I’ll do some for the Canadians too.

Also, there has been some issue with the paperback version – mainly that we realized the pdf my brother made would amount to an 8x11 sized book and that is weirdly too big for this type of book. We want something closer to 8x6. But when he tried to resize, it messed up the photos. (yes, there are photos in this book, of my sweet furry babies!) I didn’t want to make him redo everything, but he was insistent. He said if we are gonna do this, let’s do it right, And that an 8x11 would be a weird size and he’d rather do the work than always look at the book and feel like we got lazy. I agree the size would be wrong for a book of this type – non-fiction anthology of pet stories, not like a children’s book or a cookbook or something. So the e-book comes out first, then the paperback, once he’s fixed it up.

Look, you have all been so supportive of my writing, and I never would have made it here without the support of fandom, and all of you in particular. So thank you. Really, thank you.

Now, go follow my professional FB page! Westword Books If you aren’t on FB, don’t worry, I will give the major announcements here, but if you can follow me on FB, please do so. Soon I will make announcements on Twitter, Tumblr, other authors’ blogs who are going to interview me – and if people who find me through there, ‘outside’ people so to speak, come to my professional page and see only 30 people follow me, it’s gonna look kinda lame. Help me out, ya’ll! Plus you’ll get exciting content like an early chapter release. ;)

October 26th – mark you calendars!

The Canadian Brother has been watching Buffy for the first time. Well, he’d seen s1-3 but then stopped because, and I quote, “I didn’t wanna watch Buffy: The College Years.” But now he’s watching the whole thing from s1-7. So it’s been an hour tonight, where I’ve only made it 18 minutes into the show I’m trying to watch because my brother keeps texting me to talk about Buffy! Turns out his ex-wife has the kids this weekend & he’s just watching Buffy all night & texting me non-stop everything that’s happening. It’s adorable, you guys. I mean, he’s a 43 year old man watching a show initially aimed at teenage girls, alone on a Friday night, texting his baby sister to ask her, “What’s with Anya & bunnies tho?” So, a little sad, but also super adorable.

We were trying to debate our favorite eps and I know I have a top ten list somewhere, but I’m starting to think that “somewhere” is just in my head & I never wrote it down. Also he didn’t care for brooding mcbroodster Angel on Buffy (though apparently more than he did Riley, who he found really boring) so he’s refusing to watch Angel even though Sis & I have been trying to convince him that Angel is like way different on “Angel” than he was on Buffy. So much more rounded out. And still brooding, but also fun. Not so emotionally constipated. So just as I’m finally like, “I have to go, I haven’t even made it halfway through this episode because I keep stopping to talk about Buffy!” (there are so many worse problems in the world, lol) he is like, “ I'll make a deal with you for angel. You watch dirk gently s1 then I will watch angel s1.” Which is SO cheat! I tried the pilot of Dirk. Everything moved too fast, they talked too fast, I couldn’t understand what was happening and Dirk gave me a headache. He was too maniac. CBro knows this! And I know he will love Angel, but he’s so stubborn, omg. I may have replied, “Oh fuck you. Fine. I’ll watch maniac man who makes no sense, you asshole. You are gonna like Doyle hella more than I’m gonna like Dirk.” I guess we will see. Whether or not I like Dirk Gentley. I know he’s gonna like Angel!

Hey all! I just wanted to drop in and let you know that I am doing okay. I appreciate - more than you can know - all the emails, texts, messages & comments you guys sent me after Mom passed. There was a point, about three days after she died, where sympathy cards had started arriving and you guys were sending me messages and the FB post about her passing was full up from people I knew, many I hadn’t heard from in 20 years, childhood friends popping in to say what fond memories they had of Mom - and boy, did I lose my shit and just started crying. In a good way though. So thank you.

( Emotions under the cut. )

At any rate, thank you all for your support. It’s still a long road to go - literally doing things for her and emotionally trying to work past this empty feeling. I know there will always be a spot that belongs to her, but hopefully I can full it with the best of memories.

Did this over on Facebook - wonder if it got started to promote the Emoji movie? - so I thought I'd post over here too!

Can you do it? Only emojis

Current mood: 🤔
Relationship status:😺😺😺😺
Kids: 🤣
Siblings: 👩🏻‍💼💁🏻‍♂️🙎🏼‍♂️
Pets:😻😻😻😻❗️🐶❓
Favorite color: 🔮
Favorite Animals:🦄
Favorite season: 🍁🍁
Most used emoji:💕
Favorite food: 🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🍫🍫🍫
Favorite beverage:💧🚰🤷🏼‍♀️
Favorite hobby:💻📜✏️📝👩🏼‍💻👩🏼‍🎨🖍🖌

Sorry, Sis, they don't have the red headed emoji anymore. I could have used the old white haired lady tho! 🤣. And, Canadian Bro, they don't have any bald guys! 🤣. They also don't have soda, otters or jellyfish, wtf, I feel the emoji squad is lacking here!

I know one can - and I do - crosspost from DW to LJ, but is there a way to collect my tweets from Twitter and get them onto DW? I know people can do it from Twitter to LJ. I want to go from Twitter to DW and then from DW to LJ. Yes, I have turned into one of *those people* who wants everything connected. Except my Facebook. IRL people follow my Facebook and they must never know of my secret identity or the undignified double life I lead!

Ion, I am at the end of Day 12 of a 16 day influx of family. It started when The Nephew arrived to stay so he could go to daycamp (near Sis' work, so she did the dropping off/picking up) and then blew up when The Canadians arrived, plus a few extra kids over the holiday weekend - all 4 niblings plus Little Girl Cousin. Had a bonfire at vet-tech-cousin's to watch the fireworks from her front yard on the 3rd, 11 adults & 8 kids. Then the annual 4th cookout at my house - started 6 years ago with 15 people, this year we had 45 + 2 dogs, one of which was a 10-week old Dotson. And now we are down to me, Sis, TCBro, TCNephew & TCNiece, plus 4 cats and, for the night, the 10-week old Dotson puppy, that we are dog-sitting.

My life is madness, people!

I'm not sure how much I will get done off of this month's checklist, because so much of my time is being taken up by funeral stuff and trying to help my sister as much as I can, but I will try to do a little at least. The funeral is next Saturday, but that won't be the end of the stuff we need done, especially since Sis is volunteering to do the house clean out at the farm, along with my cousin. One room at a time, sorting and cleaning. She had her first day today and it was mostly doing dishes and laundry and basic cleaning that needed done.

Anyway, here are the things I got done for July and August...

( July stuffs! )

( August stuffs! )

Anyways, I think it's okay if I take a break this month!

Time to look back on what I accomplished during the month of May! (I think typing these little 'sum ups' makes me feel more accomplished, because I don't think I've done enough and then I type it out and I'm like, wooooah, okay.)

Every Wednesday this month, I went to physical therapy and put away my laundry. Every Thursday I did my calendar updates, organized the TiVo for the week, did my Flist replies and called my dad for a chat. Every Friday I called my Mom and organized my weekly pills. I talked to Canadian Brother twice - and his kids twice, but two different times than the times I talked to him, lol - and we've been emailing a bunch lately too.

I only did three writing sessions - I wanted to do eight, but I think Comic Com drained my energy more than I expected. I did write two chapters in my grandma's book and one for The Nephew's, so at least my writing was super productive. I would've written more for The Nephew, but he is being a lazy butt about returning my edits on chapter two, so I can't write chapter three yet. I also didn't post a single piece of fic or writing of any kind to my LJ. I have to stop being such a bum about that. I did post six times to LJ this month, which was twice more than I had on my to-do list. I also did four comment answering sessions, which was right on target. I didn't do anything on AO3, no answering comments or posting fic. It seems I have abandoned my account there, which is horrible, because I have tons of stuff to put up there.

For Comic Con I made graphics to get autographed, one for James Marsters, one for Holland Rhoden and one for Mitch Pileggi. I also got my hair cut and then dyed. And I caught up on all of Teen Wolf, so I didn't get spoiled on plot at the con. Then, of course, I went to Motor City Comic Con, which was wonderful, but exhausting, my goodness. And since I got home I wrote emails to MCCC, the venue it was at and the photo op studio, praising when they got accessibility right and pointing out where they could make some adjustments. I actually got a wonderful call back from the venue and they intend to actually have a meeting about my concerns! And I got a bunch of prints of photos from the con and framed some up for my dad.

I also had to take a trip to the university hospital for a doctor's appointment. I did not, sadly, finish the book I was reading. It is one of the Greek myth books I got for The Nephew, but decided he wasn't old enough for the content yet. Those Greek Gods are kind of rapey and incestuous. I also took two shopping trips to Target, for makeup and clothes and photo stuff.

So, that was my month. Yep, typing it out totally worked. I feel much more accomplished now!